I am Red. I am a Survivor. This is my journey.

Friday’s draining..

The home health nurse came today. I’m glad that it will be the same woman each time and that she is kind. I answered a small amount of questions – nothing like yesterday – and she took my vitals. I explained that I suspected there to be some fluid, maybe around 500 ml, because my friend noticed my shortness of breath unloading the dishwasher yesterday (she actually made me stop so she could do it) and also that I had been coughing quite a bit. We had a choice of ordering bottles in the 500 ml or 1 liter size. After talking it over, we decided to start with the larger size in case it’s a decent amount of fluid at first. We can order the smaller ones next time if we need to.

The bottles come in a sealed bag with a sterile kit that includes gloves, all bandaging needs (though I will need to order more so that I can change bandages in between, such as when I shower), alcohol wipes for cleaning the tubing & my skin around it and caps for the tubing (the caps will be replaced every visit). We decided that laying on the bed sitting up would be best and likely the most comfortable for me.

Since the hospital had the tube outside of the bandages, she was able to drain me before changing them. After cleaning the plugs, she hooked me up to the tube connected to the bottle and fluid immediately started flowing out. She expressed her surprise, indicating that when the fluid comes out quickly like that it typically means that there is a large amount of fluid in there. The bottle was filling rather quickly too.

The hookup of the tubes is where some people say there is pain but I could only feel a little pop of pressure. The draining didn’t hurt at all and actually I could feel a bit of relief as the fluid left. It must have been putting a good amount of pressure on my lungs. There is a roller thingy on the tube that connects to the bottle so that I can control how fast or slow the fluid should drain or to stop the flow entirely. We started slow but picked up speed when I realized it didn’t hurt (I was super nervous about it being painful – still am!).

As the bottle filled, I could feel a bit of discomfort forming in my lungs and a cough getting ready to form. We slowed the fluid, saw that the bottle was already past the amount that is supposed to be taken at home, and stopped the flow. 1100 milileters was drained! That is craziness…the nurse indicated her surprise since I was drained 1200 milileters late Tuesday. She unhooked me, cleaned it and capped me off.

Next she took off the hospital bandage, cleaned me up from the antibacterial stuff they wiped on my skin from surgery (it was under the bandage so I couldn’t clean it myself), and then rebandaged me. The removal of the sticky tape was probably the worst part (does that bother anyone else?). The fluid itself gets flushed down the toilet, the bottle is wrapped in a plastic bag and tossed. Sadly, they are not recyclable.

The entire process took less than an hour and I was glad to have the bandage replaced. I still cannot believe the amount of fluid that came out today. Like I mentioned yesterday, I’m not sure if they didn’t drain me in full on Tuesday or if I’m truly filling up that fast. It also made me wonder if my lung will only hold 2 liters at a time and maybe that’s why I am always so uncomfortable. Perhaps it wants to produce a liter every other day but can’t because there is no room in my lung…until now. So it’ll be interesting to see how much fluid I continue to produce. I literally weighed 3 pounds less from the fluid removal. 😐

So that’s my excitement for today! Aside from that, I have been battling a cold that doesn’t seem to be getting better. We ventured out of the house tonight to see some dear friends and just a few hours into being out, I could feel that my body had enough. It was the first time that I had been out of the house since surgery but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. My cold seemed to get a little worse and the soreness that was getting a little better came back at full force. Yeesh. It was nice to get out for a bit and see our friends though!

So this weekend will be spent resting, recovering and enjoying this beautiful Florida weather with my boys. Happy Friday night, all. Here’s to the weekend! 💃💃💃